In silver halide photographic materials, it has been frequently practiced to color the photographic silver halide emulsion layers and other hydrophilic colloid layer(s) for absorbing light of a specific wavelength.
When it is necessary to control the spectral composition of light entering a photographic silver halide emulsion layer of a silver halide photographic material, a colored layer is usually formed at the side farther from the support than the photographic emulsion layer. Such a colored layer is known as a filter layer. When a photographic light-sensitive material has plural photographic emulsion layers, a filter layer may be added between the photographic emulsion layers.
A colored layer known as an antihalation layer is provided to prevent dimming of images (halation) caused by light that is scattered during or after passing through photographic emulsion layers, which scattered light is reflected at the interface between the emulsion layer and the support and/or at the surface of the support opposite to the emulsion layer side, and then reenters the photographic emulsion layer. When plural photographic emulsion layers are present, the antihalation layer is sometimes interposed between these photographic emulsion layers.
Furthermore, the photographic emulsion layer(s) can be colored to prevent a reduction in image sharpness caused by light scattering at photographic emulsion layer(s) (this phenomenon is generally known as "irradiation").
In many cases, colored layers are formed of hydrophilic colloids. For coloring these hydrophilic colloid layers, a dye is usually incorporated in the hydrophilic colloid layers. The dye being used for the purpose must satisfy the following requirements.
(1) The dye has an appropriate spectral absorption according to the desired application.
(2) The dye is photochemically inactive. Specifically, the dye does not exert adverse chemical effects on the performance of the silver halide photographic emulsion layers, for example, a reduction in sensitivity, fading of latent images formed and fog.
(3) The dye is decolorized during photographic processing or is dissolved out in the processing solution or wash water during processing so as to not leave harmful residual color in the photographic light-sensitive material after processing.
(4) The dye does not diffuse into other layers from the dyed layer.
(5) The dye is excellent in stability over time in solution or in the photographic light sensitive material and does not cause discoloration or fading.
In particular, when the colored layer is a filter layer or an antihalation layer provided at the same side as the photographic emulsion layer side of the support, it is frequently required that the layer only is selectively colored and the coloring does not substantially affect other layers. The reason is that if the coloring affects other layers, it not only provides a harmful spectral effect to other layers, but also the efficacy of the filter layer or the antihalation layer is reduced.
However, when the layer containing the dye is brought into contact with other hydrophilic colloid layer in a wet state, a part of the dye frequently diffuses from the dye layer to the other layer. For preventing this diffusion of the dye many methods have been proposed.
For example, a method of providing a dissociated anionic dye and a hydrophilic polymer having an opposite charge as a mordant in a layer to localize the dye in the specific layer by the interaction of the mordant with the dye molecule is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,548,564, 4,124,386, and 3,625,694.
Also, a method of dyeing a specific layer using fine particles of a metal salt adsorbed with a dye is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,719,088, 2,496,841, and 2,496,843 and JP-A-60-45237 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application").
Also, a method of dyeing a specific layer using a water-insoluble solid dye is disclosed in JP-A-55-120030, JP-A-56-12639, JP-A-55-155350, JP-A-55-155351, JP-A-63-27838, JP-A-63-197943, JP-A-52-92716, European patents 15601, 276566, 274723, 276566, and 299435, and WO 88/04794.
However, even when using these methods, there is a problem of diffusion of the dye in a dye-fixing layer. When changing various factors to quicken processing, such as improving the compositions of processing solutions or improving the composition of photographic silver halide emulsions there is a problem in that the decolorizing function of the dye is not always satisfactory due to the delayed decolorizing rate at photographic processing.